


Cowboy's Delight and other Important Wildflowers

by galaxiebot



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Eventual Smut, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 13:36:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2271717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxiebot/pseuds/galaxiebot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat's the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a Sophomore in college who takes an immediately liking to Karkat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Flowers stooped over the edges of their pots. Some were beginning to wilt, but they were pretty enough to leave for the rest of the day. It was important to all the attendants of the little flower shop that each flower got their chance to be beautiful for as long as possible, so even the wilting flowers were left to be removed at the end of the day. The shop was sleepy, but full of the fresh and inviting smell of petals. Tulips and lilies stood tall next to each other with baby’s breath and lavender in separate pots as suggested accents. All the boutonnieres that they’d made for the day had been picked up by excited young girls while the corsages were picked up by teenage boys who looked too young to be in high school. It was a good time to be in the shop, with its large and west facing front windows the sunset made the flowers light up and glow at their most brilliance.  


The shop was quiet for a Thursday evening. Usually Karkat was toiling away in the back trying to complete orders for Friday, but today he sat watching the sunset just beyond the row of flowers at the front of the shop. It was almost closing time, but he wasn’t in any rush to leave so he waited to pull the displays that were set just outside the front door inside. Instead he thought about all the bouquets he sold today and how many men were taking them home to their significant others as a sign of the love between them. He was a hopeless romantic who worked at a flower shop and it was difficult to get around letting his mind drift about where the flowers would end up. Would they solve a fight between lovers? Would they help someone convey their feelings to a friend they’d lost? Or maybe they’d begin a relationship. Bringing about the first step needed to jump into love between two people for the first time.  


He shook his head a bit and checked his watch. It was about time for him to head out. He needed to get home in time to meet some friends online. His body was pretty unwilling to move, but he forced himself out of his seat at the counter and headed for the front door. The sun felt warm on his skin, but the air was getting cool around him as he approached the door. It was a good day.  


His hair stood on end when he heard the strange noise. It should have been pretty clear what was going to happen, and Karkat should have moved out of the way, but instead he stood staring at the boy quickly descending upon him on a long board. Karkat didn’t move, but he didn’t get his either. The boy swerved around him just in time to scoot past his nose, the flowers on the display weren’t so lucky.  


The longboard flipped over and clattered to the ground as the rider flopped to the ground face first on top of the flower display. Karkat stood still unsure of what to do. The boy stirred and picked himself up muttering swears under his breath.  


“Are you okay?” Karkat asked. The boy sat on his heels for a moment examining his hands and the road rash he now had on his arm.  


“You should really,” the boy spun around quickly his jaw locked which only succeeded in making him look slightly older then he must have been, but his face softened quickly his eyebrows peeking up above his sunglasses, “uh, put those displays on either side of the door. So you know, the space isn’t so narrow tight there, um.”  


“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind kid. Are you alright? You’re bleeding,” Karkat said.  


“I-I’m fine. I’ll be fine.” He picked up his longboard quickly and stood.  


“Are you sure? I have a first aid kit I could patch you up,” Karkat said.  


“No, it’s, uh, fine. I’ll be on my way now,” he said. He waved Karkat off with his free hand and quickly ran off in the direction he’d been going. Karkat stood watching him for a little while before looking down at the flower displays that were all over the ground now. He’d smashed all the flowers and it was pretty clear none of them were salvageable, but even worse it seemed like the rack itself wasn’t in one piece anymore.  


“Fuck,” Karkat said, “he could have at least apologized.”  


Karkat picked up the destroyed rack and flowers quickly giving some of the few that were good enough to the little old woman who was strolling down the quiet street at the time. He was frustrated because he’d most assuredly be blamed for this situation even though he had no control over it. The owner was not going to be happy. After he had it cleaned up, he pulled the second rack inside the shop, locked up, grabbed his backpack, and left the owner a note for when she came in the next day. He left his apron in the back before leaving through the back door. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with was that broken rack, so he decided he could get away with saying he had to leave to do homework and that he’d fix it as soon as he was in the next day. He’d finished his homework at the shop of course, but who doesn’t fib to their employer on occasion?  


His walk home was short from the shop especially on the hilly streets that he had to travel down. The mountain town wasn’t very busy, but that was how he liked it. Peace was a good thing in his opinion, not that the last thirty minutes of work were peaceful at all, but it was nice that it could be peaceful for a bit now. He climbed the stairs to his apartment building slowly. It wasn’t much, but the back porch had a great view and the internet ran fast so it was all he needed. Especially while he was still in school, though he only had another two years and he didn’t see himself moving or leaving his job anytime soon. He’d be hired on full-time as soon as he finished grad school and then he’d be made a manager. At least that’s what the owner told him a week ago her opinions changed often. But her daughter wasn’t interested in taking over the business and she wanted to hand it off to someone one day, so she’d told him that he was better than anyone else at this point. That may have been a bit of an insult, but at least he felt like he had a good shot at being manager there.  


He set his bag down once he was inside and started up his computer. It was a little later than originally planned, but his clan often bickered over mic for long periods of time before they decided what they were going to play that night. Having a clan that spanned several games made sure it didn’t get boring for everyone after short periods of time. When he slipped his headphones on and got online, the group had just about decided that League was the game for today. He said hi and agreed with them before opening the game and getting into the queue.  


They played several games together and soon it was getting late and everyone said they have early classes in the morning despite most of them knowing for certain some of them didn’t. They just didn’t want to look like wimps, but Karkat wasn’t about to call them out on it. The group said their good byes and talked about when they’d meet again and soon Karkat was sitting with his headphones off just remembering he’d never eaten dinner.  


He ate quickly and curled up in bed with one of the novels he’d been working his way through. When people asked what he was reading at that time, he’d tell them it was obscure sci-fi, when in reality it was science fiction romance with an extreme emphasis on the romance and not so much about the science. His eyes started to feel heavy as he read and soon he turned off his lamp to go to sleep. It was a pretty normal day minus one klutzy long board riding hipster.  


 


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a Sophmore in college who takes an immediately liking to Karkat.

Karkat stretched staring at the ceiling of his little apartment before rolling out of his bed. His alarm had been going off for ten minutes, but he knew he didn’t really need to rush. He stood, making his way to the bathroom before showering and putting on clothes that he was pretty certain were clean. He was getting used to his morning routine since he forced himself to take a few eight o’clock classes this semester.  


He rubbed his eyes as he made coffee and stuffed a bagel into the toaster. His mornings usually consisted of ambling around his little studio bleary eyed until he got his first cup of coffee, his afternoons were spent at school, and finally in the evenings he watched over Mum’s the Word which quickly became his precious flower shop. He hadn’t gotten an angry phone call yet, so he assumed the owner wasn’t working or just wasn’t angry, but he knew it was probably the former.  


The day went fairly normally after that, the students in his classes were less rowdy than normal and for once it felt like they were listening to him as he talked, his walk to the flower shop was uncomfortably uphill, the shop was wide open for customers, but lacked a second outdoor display rack. He wandered in about ten minutes before his shift was supposed to start. Smiling at Kanaya who was moving fabric swatches around on the front counter, he walked around to set his backpack in the back and put on his apron.  


“So what exactly happened to the flower rack?” Kanaya asked. Karkat was walking up to the counter still tying his apron. Kanaya’s short hair framed her face in just the right way to make her look more accusatory then she actually was. She was very sweet, but wasn’t going to deal with anyone’s bullshit and Karkat definitely admired that about her. She wasn’t particularly tall and her thin arms were crossed over her chest. The best way to describe her physically was probably slight or thin, but her personality was definitely enough to make up for her size.  


“Some hipster dung nugget was on his long board and nearly hit me, but narrowly missed and wound up colliding with our display instead. Does your mother know yet?” I asked. Kanaya was wearing a long red skirt with her apron tied over it. She always looked like a flower to Karkat, small and delicate, but she could kick his ass and he knew it. So he just imagined her as a really aggressive Forget-me-knot.  


“She doesn’t know. Was the hipster okay?” Kanaya asked. Karkat was moving her fabric swatches around to make the combinations as heinous as possible, but she just ignored him.  


“Yeah, the kid got right back up and ran off. But the special snowflake didn’t even apologize or anything before he did,” Karkat said. Kanaya had begun putting her swatches back in the correct places as Karkat started to check the flowers in the displays throughout the shop.  


“Weird. Wonder why he was so jittery,” Kanaya said. She was absent mindedly matching pairs into sets of four now.  


“He got banged up pretty good. It was probably just that. Either way can you stay long enough for me to fix the display rack?” He asked.  


“Yeah, of course,” Kanaya said.  


“Thanks,” Karkat said. He ran into the back of the shop and quickly started fixing the rack. It took him about an hour to bend all the pieces back to straight and once he had it together he brought it out and set it in front of the door to hold it open. He then filled it with flowers that were the same or similar to what they’d previously had in it. Hopefully Kanaya’s mom wouldn’t notice it then.  


Kanaya left shortly after Karkat had finished making the few boutonniere orders they had for Saturday. The shop got busy for a short amount of time; a man came in to get his wife an anniversary gift, a few teenage boys placed orders for corsages, and a woman even came in for a dozen roses to bring to her friend. Soon though it was like any other day in the sleepy flower shop. The homecoming formal at the local high school was tomorrow, so soon they’d get fewer little orders. Generally, they’d be doing bigger bouquets after that. Anniversaries and Weddings kept their business alive. It helped that their town was a place that was so beautiful anyone would want to get married there.  


Karkat sat atop his stool again looking at the flowers and reading one of the bridal magazines they kept on the counter in the front. It was mostly used for matching styles of flowers with the bride’s dress so the center pieces brought out the best of the bride as well as the event. According to Kanaya’s mother, the bride’s dress could give you everything you needed to match flowers to the event. Karkat really enjoyed learning about all the different meanings of flowers. None of his friends online believed he actually worked in a flower shop, and the few the few friends he had at school with weren’t surprised at all after having a taste of the movies he liked.  


The day felt like it was going slower than usual, but Karkat was finding ways to make use of the time. He helps the few customers that came in and set up an appointment for one. As the evening started winding down it became clear that Karkat wasn’t going to see any more customers, so he hunkered down at the counter putting together baskets with lots of fall colors. He’d gotten himself totally focused by the time someone walked into the shop. He was already at the counter watching Karkat place flowers before, before Karkat even looked up.  


“Hi,” he said. He had the same shades, same hair, and Karkat suddenly registered just who he was. The kid stood a few feet from him in a flannel shirt with his hands in his pockets. His hair was light in color and his face looked young.  


“Hi,” Karkat said. His arm was patched with a bandage where he had road rash from the fall and he held his long board under one slim arm. “Are you here to break more displays?”  


“No.” His face scrunched up in annoyed disapproval. “No, I’m here to apologize.” He looked like Karkat had disappointed him somehow, but Karkat wasn’t about to worry since he assumed he wouldn’t see this kid after this.  


“Well thanks. I appreciate it, but my boss never even saw it and it’s not like you hit me so it wasn’t a big deal,” Karkat said. He went back to placing flowers in the basket he was working on.  


“But, I uh,” he said. He held up his hand to set a bag and a cup of coffee on the counter in front of Karkat. “I wanted to actually apologize. It’s just a doughnut, but it was the only thing I could come up with.”  


“Thank you, but really it isn’t a big deal,” Karkat said. He was bunching Mums together in small balls so he can add them to the basket.  


“Um.” Karkat glanced up at the kid and Karkat had to admit the look on his face was pretty cute, though it would have been more enjoyable without the shades. The kid’s face was pretty red, but he was forcing himself to be confident. “My name is Dave, by the way.”  


“Karkat, it’s nice to meet you,” he said. Dave shifted in his spot a little. Karkat was pretty sure what he was up to, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to watch him crash and burn or let him down easy. He watched Dave for a moment, before he seemed to get up the courage to speak.  


“Do you go to school around here?” Dave asked. Karkat glanced at him more thoroughly as he came up with a good response.  


“Yeah, I’m at the University in town.” Karkat was hoping once Dave knew he was a University student he’d stop trying to hit on him and consider Karkat too old.  


“Oh really? I am too,” Dave said. Karkat blinked at him for a long moment before screwing his face up and shaking his head.  


“You’re kidding right?” Karkat asked.  


“Nope,” Dave said. Dave’s mouth quickly turned up in a devilish smile which made him look only slightly older. Karkat stared at his lips a little, but stopped himself from wondering about how they’d feel. He was convinced there was no way this kid was old enough to be in college let alone consent for anything himself.  


“I don’t believe you.” Karkat laughed a bit turning back to his flowers. He started to move the Mums around so they weren’t so central in the basket. Dave’s lips formed a hard line his nostrils flaring a bit. Karkat had to resist the urge to get hysterical. He looked like an angry little kid.  


“I’m nineteen. I’ll be twenty in December,” he said. Karkat calmed himself down quickly, but it was clear that he still didn’t believe Dave. Without further question, Dave pulled his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out his university I.D. as well as his driver’s license. He slapped them on the counter in front of Karkat.  


“Really?” Karkat asked. He chuckled, picking up Dave’s driver’s license to examine his birthday. “Strider, huh? You have one hell of a baby face.”  


“Yeah, I’m aware,” he said. Karkat picked up Dave’s I.D. and offered both of the cards back to him. Dave took them begrudgingly, but seemed to be happy that he proved himself to Karkat. Karkat was mostly guessing at that point though, as easy as it was to tell Dave wanted to flirt with him that was the only thing that seemed clear. Otherwise, Dave was completely difficult to read especially with those shades on. He watched Dave closely as Dave checked the watch on his right wrist.  


“I have to go, but sorry again. Maybe I’ll see you around,” Dave said.  


“Yeah, sure kid.” Karkat picked up his flowers again.  


“Stop calling me kid,” Dave said.  


“Stop being four years younger than me,” Karkat said. He moved the Mums more creating a surround for the little wooden bird house in the center of the basket.  


“You’re a super senior?” Dave asked. Karkat furrowed his eyebrows at him.  


“I’m a grad student,” Karkat said. Dave paused a bit embarrassed at the blunder he’d just made.  


“Uh, what’s your major?” Dave asked.  


“Biology, a focus in botanicals,” Karkat said. Dave was awkward now. His body didn’t move so smoothly, but he managed to get himself near out the door without hitting anything with his longboard.  


“That’s cool, well I’m, uh, late. So, sorry for everything. See you around,” he said.  


“Yeah,” Karkat said. He watched Dave leave and get on his longboard before riding away. Karkat couldn’t imagine what that kid saw in him, but he seemed pretty determined to make friends. He knew he’d be getting asked out next time he saw Dave and he hated rejecting people flat out. “What a pain.”


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a Sophmore in college who takes an immediately liking to Karkat.

Karkat sat in the shop waiting for Kanaya. It was only another half an hour before he was scheduled to leave and as much as he liked the flower shop he really needed to get things done. The morning was quick with lots of orders going out to churches and banquet halls, but then it slowed down by midday. He finished setting everything up for the orders for the next day, and then he quickly put them together and put them in the cold room in the back. After that he was left with nothing to do. He felt pretty useless if he couldn’t be productive.  


He was flipping through a bridal magazine again when he heard someone step inside. He didn’t look up at them, because he assumed it was Kanaya based on how they seemed familiar with the shop.  


“You’re so slow today. You’re usually here way before your shift actually starts,” Karkat said.  


“Oh am I?” Dave asked. Karkat jolted and looked up quickly.  


“No, no you’re not,” Karkat said, “you don’t work here.”  


“No, I don’t,” Dave said. The smirk on his face was too much, but Karkat couldn’t bring himself to want to hit him like he would with certain other people.  


“What are you doing here?” Karkat asked. Dave walked up closer to the counter adjusting his longboard so he wouldn’t accidentally his anything.  


“I need flowers,” he said. Karkat furrowed his eyebrows at him. He wasn’t sure if Dave was being sarcastic or not. “Look at me like that all you want I’m serious.”  


“Okay, what do you need flowers for?” Karkat asked.  


“I’m actually looking for a certain kind of flower,” Dave said, “I need Hydrangeas.”  


“What on Earth do you need those for?” Karkat asked.  


“I’m trying to insult my older brother with flowers. Hydrangeas represent heartlessness right?” Dave asked. Karkat stared at him blankly. He couldn’t believe anyone else spent their time looking up meanings of flowers like he did.  


“Yeah, but also frigidity and vanity,” Karkat said.  


“Even better, so long as he’s insulted by anything that comes up on a google search I’m happy,” Dave said. His confidence was almost alarming to Karkat. This was clearly an area in which Dave thrived.  


“We also have some Narcissus if you want to call him self-centered as well,” Karkat said. It was meant to be sarcastic, but Dave perked up.  


“Yeah, I’ll take some of that as well,” Dave said. Karkat rolled his eyes as he walked into the back.  


“Do you want them in a bouquet?” He asked. He pulled out several groups of the tiny flowers for the Hydrangeas before going further back to get the Narcissus.  


“Yes please, and in a vase if it can be,” Dave said. Karkat walked out to the counter and pulled a small vase from the box under their little work counter.  


“So can I ask why you’re insulting your brother with flowers?” Karkat asked. He set the flowers down on the counter and took the scissors to cut off the stems of the Hyrdrangeas.  


“He’s been writing really passive aggressive post-it notes to me all week. It’s in response to that,” Dave said. Karkat nodded as he measured where to cut the flowers with his hand and took the scissors to the stems all at once.  


“But why flowers? You could just write notes back,” Karkat said. He grabbed the vase and turned to fill it at the sink just behind the counter. Once he had water in it, he added a small amount of fertilizer and then some clear glass gems to help hold the flowers up.  


“It’s just too ironic to not use flowers. They’re supposed to be a nice gift, but instead I’m using them to insult someone. It’s perfect,” Dave said.  


“Why is it so important for it to be ironic?” Karkat asked. He started picking up Hydrangeas up and began carefully nestling the stems into the gems at the bottom of the vase.  


“Because an ironic insult will always be better than just an insult,” Dave said, “just like happy coincidences are always better than bad coincidences.”  


Karkat laughed as he formed the Hydrangeas into a nice puffy collar around the edge of the vase. He placed one last bundle of the little lavender flowers into the center to cover the hole before grabbing the scissors again to cut the stems of the Narcissus. Dave watched Karkat’s hands carefully. It was almost hypnotizing how effortlessly Karkat was able to put together the vase.  


“That analogy makes no sense, but I think I get what you’re trying to say,” Karkat said. He started carefully peppering the Narcissus in amongst the hydrangeas creating some contrast throughout the arrangement.  


“Wow,” Dave said.  


“What?” Karkat watched Dave carefully as Dave approached the vase to look at it more closely.  


“It looks really nice,” Dave said. He leaned over a little to look at the sides and Karkat caught a tiny glimpse of his eyes behind the shades. Karkat wanted to remove them, but he wasn’t quite sure how Dave would react to that, so he stopped himself before the urge became too strong.  


“Thanks, it’s nothing special though,” Karkat said.  


“Really?” Dave asked. He was now turning the vase to look at all the sides. Karkat began to sweep the stems into the bin they used for compost material.  


“Yeah, it’s just a little vase with two flowers. We do way larger and more intricate things all the time,” Karkat said. Dave glanced up at Karkat and visibly paused.  


“Can I see?” Dave asked.  


“You want to see it?” Karkat asked.  


“Yeah,” Dave said. Karkat felt like the interest was more in him than the flowers, but it was rare that he got to talk someone’s ear off about his work that it didn’t really matter at this point.  


“Well, I can show you what we have in the cold room. It’ll just have to be quick,” Karkat said.  


“Awesome,” Dave said. Dave walked around the counter quickly and set his long board against the wall before following Karkat into the back. Karkat opened the door to the cold room for Dave and followed him inside. As soon as they were in the little room with Dave nearly shivering, Karkat started to explain the different center pieces he’d been making earlier for the weddings that were all the next day. He explained how each piece was decided upon and what they did to match the flowers with the style of the wedding.  


Even though Karkat knew Dave was hitting on him, he was having too much fun talking about flowers and why you couldn’t really use Lilies at a wedding. Dave was engaging and asked questions which were a nice change for Karkat. Usually if he started talking about things like this people would wait until he got through his first comment before quickly changing the subject. Unfortunately, he lost track of time and wasn’t reminded of it until Kanaya opened the door to the cold room.  


“Karkat?” Kanaya asked.  


“Oh, yes sorry,” Karkat said.  


“It’s fine, who’s this?” Kanaya asked looking at Dave.  


“Dave, nice to meet you,” Dave said. Karkat began to hurry him out of the cold room and out to the front of the shop.  


“Dave was just buying some flowers and asked about some of the other things we do here,” Karkat explained.  


“Oh I see,” Kanaya said. She followed them out slowly with her arms crossed over her chest, “and you got all preachy about flowers again?”  


“No,” Karkat said.  


“Yes he did,” Dave said. Dave walked around the counter again, picking up his longboard as he went.  


“Quiet you,” Karkat said, “he’s also the one that hit the display and broke it.”  


“Hey, why’d you have to tell her?” Dave asked.  


“I figured as much since he had a long board,” Kanaya said.  


“But he was paying and leaving now anyway, so it doesn’t matter,” Karkat said. He rang up the bouquet quickly and looked at Dave, “Thirty dollars.”  


“I didn’t say I was leaving,” Dave said. He picked up his flowers and walked over to the register. Setting the flowers down, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket holding up a car to Karkat.  


“Yeah Karkat, let him stay. He seems like good company,” Kanaya said. She had a coy smile on as she leaned her elbows on the counter top and looked up at Karkat.  
“Well he was only here to hit on me, so I don’t see why’d he stick around when I’m about to leave anyway,” Karkat said. Dave’s face got red, but it was clear he knew that Karkat knew.  


“Well in that case you should take him out to get coffee since he seems interested and you’re leaving anyway,” Kanaya said. It was Karkat’s turn to get red. He looked at Kanaya wide eyed as she laughed whole heartedly at him. Dave’s face had gone from embarrassed to hopeful really quick. Karkat turned to Dave and opened his mouth before closing it again and looking at Kanaya.  


“I don’t drink coffee,” Karkat said. Kanaya laughed and looked directly at Dave.  


“That’s a lie don’t believe him,” she said. Dave just looked confused now and Karkat was starting to feel guilty.  


“What I mean is, I don’t date people who just started high school when I just graduated high school,” Karkat said.  


“Ouch Karkat way to be nice about it,” Kanaya said. She stood up straight and made a face at him and then turned to Dave again. “Don’t let him fool you, you’re totally his type.”  


“Kanaya please stop talking,” Karkat said. He pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose before running Dave’s card through the system. Dave laughed and slipped his long board under one of his arms.  


“I get it Karkat, you’re shy. I can respect that,” Dave said. Kanaya laughed hard as Karkat’s head shot up from the register and to Dave. Dave had the devilish look on his face again, smirking at Karkat with too much confidence.  


“Okay Strider. You’re cheeky and I get that it’s your thing, but it’s really annoying,” Karkat said.  


“I get that a lot,” Dave said.  


“Good you deserve it,” Karkat said. Dave laughed again and slid his hands back into his pockets.  


“Will you please come get coffee with me?” Dave asked. He was smiling now, but in a way that wasn’t condescending this time. “Not as a date. I just want to get to know you better. I don’t dive in that quick anyway.”  


“Fine,” Karkat said, “but only because you asked nicely.”


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a Sophomore in college, who takes an immediate liking to Karkat.

It was kind of surprising that Dave didn’t try to convince Karkat to start dating when they did finally go to get coffee. Instead they talked like normal people would when they first meet. Karkat was pleasantly surprised with how mature Dave actually was despite looking like a teenager.  


A few weeks went by and Dave became a regular figure at the shop. He hung around to keep Karkat and the plants company. He bought things from time to time, but usually he was only in there to hang around Karkat, which Karkat was becoming more okay with as time went on. It all became part of Karkat’s routine and soon Dave would be waiting at the shop with Kanaya before Karkat even got there. Sometimes he’d buy them dinner which Karkat appreciated since he usually only ate little stuff between classes during the day. Karkat would buy them coffee on campus sometimes and walk with Dave to class if they had classes in buildings near each other.  


Sooner or later the friendship became effortless for both of them. They had a lot in common, but even in a few weeks they always felt like they had new things to tell each other. Karkat still hadn’t told Dave he taught classes at the University as a Teacher’s assistant, although he did convince Dave that he should register for the class he was teaching next semester, and Dave hadn’t told Karkat that he had a film camera, but he had started leaving small prints of flowers in Karkat’s mailbox—Karkat thought they were from a girl that’s been after him for a while.  


Karkat woke up on the first Saturday he’d had off in a while early. He was too used to being up in time for class to sleep any later. He hadn’t told Dave that he had the day off. In fact, he’d totally forgotten about it until he was home the night before and looked at the dry erase board calendar he had behind his computer. Now he had the whole day to himself which wasn’t really bad, but it was uncomfortably hot in his apartment and he needed to find something to do to get out.  


He rolled out of bed and combed his hair which didn’t calm so much as slightly tame the mess. He put on shorts and a flannel shirt before grabbing his hiking boots. It’d be cooler up in the mountains and he knew a few meadows where he could get some wildflowers to keep in the apartment. Even if it was technically stealing from federal property, Karkat regularly made his way up to transplant wildflowers into a pot to take them out of the National forest. No one got to see them up there. At least on his back porch people could see them from their backyards.  


Packing a backpack with enough food for lunch and a lot of water bottles, he grabbed his car keys so he could drive up into the pass. The higher he was from where he started hiking the better. He walked out his front door only to find Dave standing near his mailbox. Of course Dave jumped in the air like a frightened kitten when he saw Karkat, but Karkat was getting pretty used to that.  


“Y-you’re here,” Dave said.  


“Yeah, I forgot I had the day off. Why are you here?” Karkat asked. Dave seemed to have calmed down enough to be excited that he was with Karkat.  


“Uh, I came looking for you since you weren’t at the shop,” Dave said. Dave was just praying in the back of his mind that Karkat didn’t realize that Dave was here for another reason, that reason being putting another photo in Karkat’s mailbox.  


“Oh okay. Well I’m heading up into the mountains to escape the heat,” Karkat said. He was starting to sweat just standing around it was so hot. It was completely unseasonable too, so he was just frustrated with the weather.  


“Oh,” Dave said. He looked like he deflated a little bit knowing he wasn’t going to get to hang around Karkat at all that day. Karkat couldn’t help chuckling a bit as he opened the door to the apartment again.  


“Do you want to come with? You’ll need better shoes and something long sleeved though,” Karkat said. Dave lit up a little and quickly caught himself before he looked too excited.  


“Yeah,” He said. Karkat led him back into his apartment which Dave had never been inside before. He’d gotten the address from Kanaya in the first place, so he was glad Karkat didn’t question how he’d gotten there. Though he felt like Karkat could have assumed he looked it up online.  


“Do you mind borrowing my clothes? I don’t feel like wasting time driving back to your place,” Karkat said. He knew that Dave would be more than thrilled to wear his clothes, but he still felt like he should ask.  


“No, I don’t mind,” Dave said. He was busy taking in everything he could about the little apartment. The closet that Karkat was rifling through seemed to have all his clothes; it was across the kitchen which had a few cabinets and small appliances including a squat fridge that was covered in word magnets. Just beyond the kitchen counter that created a little separation was a small brown couch which sat across a long desk holding Karkat’s computer and TV. Just beyond the couch was a bed that was just a mattress and box spring on the floor, but it was large and unmade. Finally, at the way back of the apartment was a set of sliding glass doors that lead out onto a porch with a small table and a couple chairs.  


But Dave’s favorite thing about the apartment was the smell of Karkat and the small amassing number of photos on the wall above the couch. Each little print had a different Colorado wildflower on it. There were bunches of Cowboy’s Delight, Crown Vetch flowers, Fairy’s Trumpets, Indian Paintbrush flowers, and many more that Dave had found while hiking in the pass. Some of the photos were taken with a film camera in black and white, others were in vivid color from a digital camera, and there were even a couple polaroid’s. Karkat liked flowers enough to put them on the wall even if he’d thought they were coming from a person he wasn’t interested in.  


“Here,” Karkat said. He walked over to Dave with a red flannel shirt and a pair of old looking hiking boots, “these should probably fit you.”  


“Thanks.” Dave took them quickly and sat on the couch to untie his shoes. Karkat walked into the kitchen and quickly threw more food and water bottles into his bag. Dave stood once he had the shoes on and set his long board against the wall.  


“Take this,” Karkat offered Dave the backpack, “you get to carry the food.”  


“What are you carrying?” Dave asked. Karkat opened the front door for him before following him outside again.  


“I’m taking all of the gardening stuff,” Karkat said. Dave wanted to ask, but Karkat was already on his way to the stairs, so Dave just followed and acted like he understood.  


They got into Karkat’s car and started up into the mountain pass. Dave spent a good amount of time making fun of Karkat’s car and questioning how he got around in the snow. Karkat didn’t pay him much mind, but eventually gave him the auxiliary cable so he could play music and would stop. The rest of the drive was a peaceful mix of Dave playing music he was hoping Karkat would like and Karkat telling him that he liked it regardless of whether or not he really did. Dave was just too happy about the music he listened to for Karkat to be honest.  


It was about nine when they made it up to the parking lot on the side of the road in the pass. Karkat parked and opened the trunk pulling out a backpack loaded up with pots and small shovels for digging up plants. Dave watched smiling with the backpack full of food on one of his shoulders.  


“So you steal plants in your free time?” Dave asked. Karkat closed the trunk and laughed.  


“Yes, I’m a plant thief,” he said. Dave laughed with him a bit as they started onto the trail. They were above tree line, but they were both used to the air being thin. As they walked, Dave told Karkat about growing up in Texas, which he seemed to mostly have not enjoyed. After that, Karkat felt a little obligated to tell Dave where he was from, so he explained that he grew up in a quiet suburb, went to college in a big city, and then moved to Boulder for graduate school. He left out the part that he had earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. Karkat didn’t like explaining how deep his love for plants really was.  


Dave spent a lot of time avoiding talking about his sexuality when he was with Karkat, especially when it was in the context of being in Texas. He just liked to remain low key about the whole thing. Making a big deal out of insignificant things wasn’t really his style, but Karkat had picked up on that quickly and was almost a little thankful that Dave wasn’t trying to throw his sexuality at him in an attempt to get Karkat to go out with him. It seemed a lot of guys at the University assumed that if you swung for guys you’d date or hook up with any guy who also swung that way, and Karkat just didn’t enjoy that. As much as they both tried to hide it, they preferred long lasting and happy relationships as opposed to short or dramatic relationships. It was just a personal preference they both had.  


When they reached the lake that Karkat was leading them to, Dave almost immediately busted out a camera from seemingly nowhere, but Dave had his own bag with him in the first place. Karkat watched him scurry around and take pictures of everything for a long time as he examined flowers that lined the path around the lake. Once he finally started digging, Dave casually started taking pictures of him from afar with a zoom lens. They didn’t have Karkat’s face in them except for the last one, but he stopped after only a few anyway; it was one thing to find someone a good subject for photos and another to stalk them. Dave made sure he never crossed that line.  


Karkat had potted a few flowers before Dave came back and tried to sit amongst the flowers with him, but he was promptly shooed away by Karkat for almost sitting on a Columbine. Dave quickly left the patch of flowers and sat on a rock by the edge of the lake instead. It was cool up above the tree line which felt much nicer than the dry heat down in the valley. He took his shoes and socks off so he could set his feet in the cold water. The climate in Colorado was much more to his liking than in Texas. Though it was still dry, he could escape to cool whenever he wanted unlike down South where everything was just heat.  


Eventually Karkat was done potting plants and carefully walked out of the little flower patch with four pots of different wildflowers. His hands were covered in dirt and somehow he’d managed to get quite a bit of it on his face in the process of digging things up. He brought the pots to the shore and dipped them in the lake one by one to water them before he lined them up near Dave’s rock. He sat on the ground next to Dave and stared at the water for a long time.  


“I think we should eat,” Karkat said. It had been about a half an hour since he’d sat next to Dave. The sun was high in the sky which meant it was about midday, but neither of them wanted to actually look at the time. Dave agreed and got onto the ground with him opening the backpack to reveal the little lunch Karkat had made.  


Karkat ate slowly and realized how much of a date this all felt like, but it wasn’t like they did anything more than ate together. They were doing their own thing for most the rest of the time until they ate lunch. So it couldn’t be a date. Not to mention it didn’t feel romantic at all. It just felt, peaceful, being alone with someone in a quiet place.  


Dave couldn’t keep himself from noticing how at ease they were sitting quietly in each other’s presence. It was hard for him to believe that Karkat had even invited him along. When he’d set about trying to get to know Karkat better he’d thought it was going to be much than it was turning out to be. The plant dork, though he was quick to be blunt like when they’d first gone out for coffee and he told Dave three times it wasn’t a date despite Dave never bringing it up, was pretty nice for someone who seemed to wanted to avoid Dave at all costs when they first met.  


“How much faster do you think we’ll get down?” Dave asked. It was getting a little later now and other people were starting to appear at the lake weary from the long hike up.  


“We’ll probably get down in half the time; some of the stuff is steep though we’ll have to be careful. Do you want to go back the way we came or down the side trail?” Karkat asked.  


“Which one has less people?” Dave asked.  


“The side trail,” Karkat said, “but it’s a bit more hairy.”  


“I can handle hairy,” Dave said. They both laughed and packed the plants into the side pockets on their backpacks before Dave pulled his shoes and socks back on. It was a short hike around the lake, but they took it slowly enjoying the cool air that they knew would only get warmer as they went down. As they came around the far side of the lake, Karkat pointed out a little campsite big enough for one tent with a fire ring.  


“I’ve camped here before,” Karkat said, “it was really nice up here at night.”  


“I could imagine. It must be a good place to clear your head,” Dave said.  


“Yeah it was.” Karkat smiled and led Dave through the campsite to get to a small trail that cut through the rocks and eventually down into the trees. Dave was a bit skeptical of the trail. He’d learned early on in his exploration of the hiking trails that it was easy to end up somewhere dangerous, but he felt like he could trust Karkat. The ridge got rockier as they descended, but Dave could see the other side was smooth meadow. It wasn’t until they had to crossover to that side of the ridge that Dave started to see a problem with Karkat’s trail.  


“Hey, how are we getting to the meadow to walk down?” Dave asked. Karkat glanced at him coming to a fissure in the rocks that created a small cliff. The path narrowed until it was only about a foot from the wall just beyond where they were standing and on the other side the trail dipped into the meadow and wound around, “wait are we seriously going to cross that?”  


“Yeah, I told you it got hairy,” Karkat said. He found to hand olds in the rocks so he could walk along the narrow path without risk of falling.  


“You said hairy, not deadly,” Dave stood staring at the rocks just below the cliff. Karkat stopped before he got above the cliff.  


“I promise it’s perfectly safe. Just follow my instructions and you won’t fall,” Karkat said. He walked around Dave and nudged him towards the cliff, “it won’t be that bad. Don’t look down.”  


“That’s exactly the kind of thing people say before doing something dangerous and falling to their death,” Dave said. Karkat took it that Dave didn’t like heights.  


“Come on, just do what I say. I promise you’ll be fine,” Karkat said. Dave stared at the path for a long moment, “I’ll guide you.”  


“Guide me?” Dave asked.  


“Yeah, here,” Karkat said. He took Dave by the small of his back and inched him towards the wall. He took one of Dave’s hands in his and guided it up to a good sized hand hold. He placed Dave’s other hand quickly before moving behind him so he could grab two different hand holds and straddle Dave, “now just move at the same time as me and out your hands where I tell you.”  


“O-Okay,” Dave said. Karkat’s face was pressed into Dave’s hair with his chest flush to Dave’s back to keep him from falling backwards as they started to walk the narrow path. Dave followed all of Karkat’s instructions with shaky hands at first, but he slowly got the handle of it when they were about half way across. Karkat went slowly though. He wanted to accommodate Dave’s fear as much as he could, but Dave had turned to putty at the feeling of having Karkat so close to him. Karkat could have told him to do anything and he would have done it at that point. There was too much adrenaline combined with his emerging feelings for Karkat for his mind to comprehend what was happening.  


“Okay, there’s a little gap up here, and you’re going to have to hop it on your own,” Karkat said.  


“You’re fucking with me right?” Dave asked. Karkat couldn’t help but laugh as he stopped them just before the gap.  


“No, I wouldn’t do that to you right now Dave,” Karkat said, “It’s only about a foot wide.”  


“I’m only about a foot wide I could fit through that,” Dave said. Karkat rolled his eyes and brought Dave’s hand up to grab a hand hold on the other side of the gap.  


“When I tell you to go, take a big hopping step to your right, okay?” Karkat asked.  


“No,” Dave said.  


“One.”  


“No.”  


“Two.”  


“No.”  


“Three, go,” Karkat said. Dave hopped as Karkat kept one hand on his lower back to guide him across. It wasn’t that Dave really needed it; he was pretty much doing everything for moral support at this point. Dave gripped the wall for a moment before he realized he was only a step away from the trail getting wide again. He quickly shuffled his way onto the trail and stood on side of the trail away from the fissure. Karkat hoped across the little gap easily and joined him on the other side.  


“Good job,” Karkat said. He walked over and ruffled Dave’s hair before starting along the trail again. Dave was still breathing unevenly, but he followed Karkat anyway.  


He couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened as they started towards the parking lot, the way it felt to have Karkat breathing softly against his hair while Karkat had his chest pressed into Dave’s back. The whole thing seemed so intimate, but Dave told himself it was only because Karkat didn’t want to walk all the way back. It was more convenient for him to get Dave across the fissure then to double back. Dave kept telling himself that. He kept trying to remind himself that Karkat probably had no other motivations.  


Karkat, on the other hand, kept his mind on something else entirely. If he ignored how nice it felt to practically have Dave in his arms then he wouldn’t have to address it and eventually he’d forget about it.  


They walked quietly, each of them dealing with the small intimacy in their own way so they wouldn’t have to talk about it. By the time they were back at the car and put their stuff in the trunk, they had both convinced themselves of whatever it was they needed to so they could go back to acting normal. Dave picked up playing music for Karkat again on their way back, this time he showed Karkat a few mixes he’d done on his own. Karkat really liked them, but didn’t want to be too direct about it with Dave, so Karkat told him they were nice and that he’d listen to them more if he gave Karkat a copy. It was enough to get Dave into one of his happy puppy moods. The ride got peaceful after that. Just the two of them listening to the same music and smiling to themselves for one reason or another.


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Recreational Drug use

They stopped to eat dinner in town, so the sun was setting by the time they got back to Karkat’s apartment. It was cooling off again, and everyone seemed to be outside. Karkat said hello to some neighbors as they walked up to the stairs. A few were packing camping supplies into their car, others were just on their way for a walk, and two girls from the university were sitting outside their apartment by the stairs with their little dog.  


Dave followed close to Karkat. He could feel the eyes of some of Karkat’s neighbors burning into his back as he carried two of the plants up for Karkat. They probably weren’t actually watching him, but he was a little paranoid of people. Growing up in Texas can do that to a person, and Dave was one of those people it had happened to.  


When they got to the top of the stairs Karkat lit up at the sight of a boy sitting on the ground in front of his door. He was lanky with glasses and Dave was almost immediately jealous of him after seeing just how excited Karkat had gotten.  


“KK where in fuck have you been for all this time?” he asked.  


“Nice to see you too Sol,” Karkat said, “did you text me? I haven’t looked at my phone in hours.”  


“Yeah, like ten times, you have my piece still you idiot I want it back,” He said.  


“Oh right, I forgot about that,” Karkat said. He pulled out his keys so he could open the door as Sollux stood up. Dave stood quietly behind Karkat still holding the plants in his hands.  


“No shit you forgot. I told you Monday I was coming to get it,” Sollux said.  


“Okay, okay. I’m sorry I forgot. I got a bit distracted.” Karkat glanced at Dave and held the door open for him, “by the way Dave this is Sollux, Sollux this is Dave.”  


“Nice to meet you, I’m sorry you now also have to deal with this idiot and his forgetfulness,’ Sollux said. Dave laughed and walked inside with Sollux close on his tail.  


“Hey!” Karkat said. He followed them inside and glanced at Dave who was still laughing. Karkat had half a mind to pull his stupid shades off of his face, but he resisted the urge.  


“It’s okay. I’m getting used it,” Dave said. Karkat rolled his eyes and opened the back door to set the two potted plants in his arms with the others that were gathered on his porch.  


“I’m not even that forgetful,” Karkat muttered. Dave laughed a bit more and set the two plants he had with Karkat’s.  


“Whatever, you have my piece and my stash just give it back,” Sollux said. Karkat and Dave walked back into the apartment.  


“So, I’m going to take a guess and say Feferi is home with her parents for the weekend and you can finally get high again,” Karkat said.  


“Yeah, for the first time in like three fucking months,” Sollux said. Dave stood watching them amused. Karkat acted very different with him than he did with Sollux and it reassured him a little. He may have also been relieved when Karkat brought up Feferi who was probably Sollux’s girlfriend, he didn’t want to admit it, but that made him feel a little better about the situation.  


“Were you planning on smoking here?” Karkat asked. He knelt down in front of the couch and lifted the flap of fabric so he could pull a little safe out from under it. Karkat set the safe on the couch and turned the wheel to spin the combination.  


“Yeah, kind of, that’s what we talked about earlier this week,” Sollux said. Karkat opened the door to the safe and pulled out the blown glass pipe along with a small Tupperware bowl and a grinder. He pressed down a small wad of cash to close the door before he slipped the safe back under the couch.  


“Are you okay with that? You can obviously join in.” Karkat asked. He looked up at Dave who had gotten distracted by the skis propped up in the corner of the room.  


“What? Yeah it’s cool,” Dave said. Karkat smiled at him a little and stood offering Sollux the grinder, pipe, and Tupperware.  


“You get to do this part,” he said and Sollux rolled his eyes. They walked out to the back porch again and sat down right about the time the sun dipped under the mountains. Sollux and Dave sat in the two chairs while Karkat sat between them on the ground.  


When Sollux was finished, he packed the pipe and pulled out a lighter to take the first hit. He handed it off to Karkat coughing a little as he did. Dave watched them both carefully, he was afraid to tell them he’d never down it before, but he knew he’d have to in a moment. Karkat took a hit with his eyes closed. It was kind of cute to watch him be so focused on something that looked so simple. Karkat let the smoke pour out of his mouth slowly and coughed softly offering Dave the pipe.  


“Have you ever done this before? You look pretty young,” Sollux said. Dave rolled his eyes.  


“I’m not that young,” Dave said. Sollux bent his head down a bit and managed to give Dave one of the most sarcastic looks Dave had ever seen.  


“He’s an undergrad Sol. He doesn’t look young, you’re just old,” Karkat said. Dave blinked at Karkat for a moment in shock. Karkat was the last person Dave expected to defend his age.  


“Okay, whatever. Have you?” Sollux asked.  


“No,” Dave said. Karkat chuckled softly.  


“You’re in for a treat,” he said. Dave didn’t respond to him as Sollux showed him how to hold the pipe quickly before showing him when and how to breathe. After the short explanation, Dave pressed the pipe to his lips and took a hit. He took in as much as he could and gasped to let the smoke into his lungs as Sollux had told him to. Dave immediately started coughing up smoke and Sollux took the pipe from his hand so he wouldn’t drop it.  


“Jesus, why do you like that?” Dave asked.  


“No one likes that. First hit always sucks,” Karkat said. Sollux took another hit as Karkat offered Dave the glass of water he’d gotten before they’d gone outside. Dave drank almost half of it as Karkat took a second hit. Karkat held onto the pipe for a moment before handing it back to Dave.  


“I don’t even feel anything,” Dave grumbled. Sollux laughed as Dave took a second hit coughing almost as hard as he did the first time.  


“You don’t usually feel it until the third or fourth,” Sollux said. Dave handed him the pipe still coughing into his arm. Karkat watched Dave down the other half of the glass of water as Sollux took another hit. When it was his turn again, Karkat took a hit and passed the pipe back to Sollux so Dave had a bit more time to recover. Dave didn’t seem to mind.  


They rotated a few more times and Dave complained again that he couldn’t feel it so Karkat handed the pipe back to him after taking a hit. This time, Dave sucked the smoke into his lungs and he coughed a lot less. Karkat noticed Dave’s eyebrows peek over his shades and smiled more because he knew that meant Dave’s eyes were getting wider. He and Sollux had a good buzz going already. If it hadn’t been for Dave, they probably would have stopped sooner, but Dave needed an extra push towards it/  


“Whoa,” Dave said, “this is kind of weird.”  


“Feeling floaty yet?” Sollux asked. Dave just nodded his head slowly. Karkat pulled his knees up to his chest smiling at Dave, “good let’s get inside I’m cold and I need something to drink.”  


“Okay,” Karkat said. Sollux stood up and walked back inside quickly, but tripped and fell into the bed as soon as he was in the door. Karkat laughed harder than he should have, but he still managed to stand up and offer Dave his hand. Dave looked at his hand and took it as he stood up.  


“I feel like I can feel everything all at once. My clothes touching me, your hand, my hair on my neck, this is really, it’s just weird,” Dave said. Karkat led them back inside and made sure no to make the same mistake Sollux did.  


“I know.” Karkat chuckled softly as Sollux sat in Karkat’s desk chair with a bottle of vitamin water, “just don’t think about it too much. If you focus on it, you’ll freak out.”  


Dave nodded again and let Karkat bring him over to the couch to sit him down. Sollux flipped on the TV scooting the chair away from the desk to see it better. Karkat grabbed two more bottles of vitamin water before joining Dave on the couch. Dave pretty gladly took the vitamin water and pretty soon they were all laughing as they watched Family Feud.  


As time went on, Dave got closer to Karkat on the couch, Sollux had curled up in the chair, and they were all talking over the TV. They came up with stupid ideas and insulted each other without a break in their giggling. Karkat felt like his face was getting sore from laughing as Dave started to have trouble breathing. Sollux ranted about Feferi which only brought about more laughing until Sollux got a text from her.  


“Oh god she knows I’m talking about her,” Sollux said. He laughed and opened the text.  


“Yeah, I forgot to tell you she installed bugs in here,” Karkat said.  


“Bugs? Where?” Dave jumped a bit looking around the couch. Karkat laughed and patted his head.  


“Don’t worry. Not those kind of bugs,” he said. Dave smiled more and watched Karkat’s face closely as he took another drink from his bottle.  


“Shit I have to go,” Sollux said.  


“Go where?” Karkat asked.  


“Fef forgot something she needs, but she also forgot her keys so she’s locked out,” he said.  


“Are you driving?” Karkat asked.  


“No, I walked don’t worry,” Sollux said.  


“Okay, be careful. Text me when you get back alright?” Karkat asked. Dave kept his eyes on Karkat’s. He could see the genuine concern coming through the mask of the high and it made Dave happy. He liked how caring Karkat was about everyone.  


“Yes mom,” Sollux said.  


“Oh fuck off,” Karkat said. Sollux laughed, opening the door to the apartment as he finished the bottle of water in his hand.  


“See you KK, and nice to meet you Dave,” Sollux said.  


“Bye Sol,” Karkat said as Dave waved his hand to wave at Sollux.  


“Nice to meet you too,” Dave said. Karkat smiled at Dave as Sollux shut the door behind him. Dave laughed and fell forward into Karkat’s lap.  


“What are you doing?” Karkat asked.  


“He was nice. I liked him,” Dave said. His voice bounced like he was singing a song. It seemed like he couldn’t speak without singing.  


“Don’t change the subject,” Karkat said. Dave turned over in Karkat’s lap to face him and smiled.  


“I didn’t change anything, you did.” He laughed, bubbly and open, as he threw his hands up above his head to stretch. Karkat shifted carefully so he wouldn’t disturb Dave too much and moved his hands onto the couch so he knew he wouldn’t touch Dave on accident.  


“What did I change?” Karkat asked. He couldn’t help, but laugh with Dave. There was the severe urge to take Dave’s shades off, so bad that it made his hands twitch thinking about it, but he didn’t want to upset Dave right now.  


“Everything,” Dave said. He sat up and shifted so he was sitting in Karkat’s lap. He was straddling Karkat’s legs, which Karkat didn’t mind, but he was starting to feel like this was pushing towards things that Karkat had told himself he wouldn’t do with Dave, especially not while he had Dave high off his ass along in his apartment.  


“What are you doing?” Karkat asked. Dave shushed him and leaned down to press his lips against Karkat’s. Karkat lost himself for a moment. He leaned into the kiss and opened his mouth when Dave licked his lip. Everything got perfectly quiet, all Karkat could feel was Dave’s tongue in his mouth. It was like nothing else existed, not even their bodies. He moved his hands onto Dave’s thighs and gained some purchase. Dave’s hands slid down his chest lightly before he really realized what was happening. He pulled away quickly, but almost felt bad when he saw the look on Dave’s face, “Dave what are you doing?”  


“I really like you.” Dave’s voice was soft, his hands were gripping Karkat’s shirt, and his shades were jostled slightly, but his eyes were still hidden.  


“Okay,” Karkat said. He grabbed Dave a little tighter and stood up with Dave in his arms. Dave latched onto him. “I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”  


“What?” Dave asked. Karkat felt guilty, he could tell just how confused Dave was. He walked over to his bed and set Dave down carefully, “why are you putting me to bed?”  


“Just sleep Dave,” Karkat said. He pressed Dave back into the bed softly and covered him with the blanket.  


“But I really do like you,” Dave said. His eyebrows had furrowed with confusion.  


“I know Dave. Now sleep, okay?” Karkat ran his fingers through Dave’s hair softly as Dave set his head on the pillow.  


“Okay,” Dave said. Karkat slipped Dave’s shades off, but he was a little disappointed that Dave had already closed his eyes.  


“Goodnight,” Karkat said. He shifted to stand, but Dave grabbed his hand.  


“Let me keep my shades,” Dave said. He hadn’t opened his eyes, so Karkat figured that maybe he really didn’t want to. He was a little happy he’d never taken Dave’s shades off before this, otherwise Dave probably would have been pretty upset.  


“Okay,” Karkat said. He handed Dave his shades and Dave held them to his chest like a stuffed animal. Karkat smiled at him, but he knew he had to move. He could only get away with watching someone sleep for so long without it being creepy.  


Karkat walked back to the couch and sprawled out on it. He felt like his heart was going to pound out of his chest. Everything hurt for a little bit. His head felt like he’d replaced his brain with angry wasps. The paranoia was starting to creep in on him. Anytime he got high this could happen, but usually watching something unnerving was what did this to him. Nothing like this had ever caused Karkat to be so uncertain. What if Dave was just talking like that because of the drugs?  


Forcing himself to take a few deep breaths, Karkat rolled onto his side and closed his eyes. It would be easier to deal with all of this in the morning when he wasn’t high anymore. He grabbed one of the pillows he kept on the couch and quickly began to fall asleep.


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a Sophomore in college who takes an immediate liking to Karkat.

Dave woke up early with the driest mouth he’d ever had in his life, but the smell of the sheets made him smile and turn over softly. As painful as his throat was he couldn’t force himself to get up and get water. The bed was too soft, the pillow smelled like shampoo, and being under the blanket was warm despite the room being kind of cold.  


It wasn’t long before Dave’s throat hurt too much to ignore anymore. He sat up and slipped his shades back on before it hit him that he wasn’t in his own bed. Dave was horrified long enough to notice Karkat asleep on the couch near him. The night before crept back to him slowly and he remembered smoking with Karkat and Sollux. It wasn’t long before he remembered most of the night, but he couldn’t put together what happened after Sollux left. He figured he’d fallen asleep and let it go quickly. It wasn’t a big deal; he knew Karkat wouldn’t have done anything to him besides maybe carrying him to the bed.  


He stood watching Karkat for any signs that he was awake. When he was certain Karkat was still asleep, he leaned over to get a good look at his face as he slept. Dave watched him for only a moment before quietly walking into the kitchen to take a water bottle from the fridge. He drank the entire thing quickly before getting another one as Karkat stirred on the couch.  


Karkat stretched and rolled onto his back staring at the ceiling for a moment as Dave watched him from the kitchen. He didn’t really mean to stare this time, he’d kind of zoned out in Karkat’s direction. He watched Karkat as he sat up before he finally came to his senses and looked away.  


“Morning,” Karkat said. Dave looked back at him, Karkat must have known he was here.  


“Morning,” Dave said. Karkat rubbed his face with his hands. He seemed tense to Dave, at least tenser then he was normally. According to Kanaya after she’d talked to a few of his high school friends that came into town once told her he used to constantly be tense and ready to yell at anything. She said they told her that they were happy to see him calmer. Dave could tell this wasn’t his calmest, “so, do you remember how we both wound up asleep? Because I don’t.”  


“Uh,” Karkat said. He looked at him wide eyed for a moment. Dave couldn’t quite place the expression. It was almost as if Karkat looked relieved, but what Dave said seemed to totally bring his calm back to him, “no I don’t actually.”  


“Well at least I’m not alone. Want breakfast?” Dave asked.  


“By that do you mean you’re going to eat my food?” Karkat asked. Dave laughed and took another drink of water.  


“Yeah, but I’m going to cook it for you first,” Dave said. Karkat laughed this time. He ran his fingers through his hair.  


“That sounds like a fair trade. Throw me a water bottle please,” he said. Dave complied quickly and threw a bottle to him as he stood. Karkat sat on one of the bar stools he kept tucked under the counter in the kitchen and watched Dave rifle through his cabinets until he found pancake mix.  


Dave started mixing the batter and finished another bottle of water. Karkat eventually joined him in the tiny kitchen to make coffee, but he was quickly shooed away from being in the way of the pancake making. He finished making the coffee over the counter as Dave teased him a bit. After a while, they both decided it was too quiet and put Dave’s phone in a mug to play music as Dave finished making the pancakes one by one.  


By the time they sat down to eat, both of them had downed three bottles of water, so they switched to coffee. The argued a bit over how to take it, Dave liked his black and Karkat added loads of sugar and creamer. Everything went really normally, they ate, cleaned up and finished their coffee on the back porch.  


Soon, Karkat had to get ready for work, and Dave had three or four messages from his brother who was trying to figure out where he was. Dave wasn’t too concerned about answering them, but he knew he should make an appearance at home sooner or later. Before he left, Dave gave Karkat his shirt back and took his shoes as well as his long board. Karkat walked Dave down the stairs so he could watch him ride away on his long board.  


Dave got home quick, most of the ride was downhill from Karkat’s place. He hopped up the stairs of his building. He sometimes hated being on the top floor, but the view was pretty nice. There weren’t many tall buildings around, but his brother somehow managed to find the tallest one he could for them when they first moved to Colorado. When he got inside his brother was sitting on the couch with a game controller in his hands.  


“Look who’s alive,” he said.  


“Yeah, I’m alive,” Dave said. He sat next to his brother on the couch watching him play his game. It had been a while since he’d seen his brother do anything besides work, so it was kind of nice. Dirk was a freelance artist now, but he dabbled in all sorts of things on the internet and managed to support them pretty well. It helped that there were only two of them.  


“Where have you been?” Dirk asked.  


“A friends place,” Dave said. Dirk glances at him side eyed and waited for the right moment of his game so he knew he wouldn’t die.  


“A friend that smokes pot?” he asked. He shoved his face in Dave’s chest taking a deep whiff of his shirt which made Dave jump and screech. Dirk laughed as he turned back to his game.  


“You freak,” Dave said, “it’s not like the smell couldn’t be from you and your habits.”  


“It couldn’t, I see you throw all of those air fresheners in your closet to keep the smell out,” Dirk said, “that’s definitely not my doing.”  


“Whatever, not like you’re in a place to judge,” Dave said.  


“I’m not, but I’m in a place to tease you about getting high for the first time,” Dirk said.  


“You don’t know that it was my first time,” Dave said.  


“Well if what you just said didn’t prove it, this entire conversation is a pretty decent way to show you that you suck at keeping things secret,” Dirk said. He adjusted his shades without letting go of his controller.  


“Well, this has been a fun family bonding moment, but I have homework to do,” Dave said.  


“By homework do you mean pine over that guy you’re after?” Dirk asked. Dave grabbed Dirk’s hat off his head and started smacking him with it as Dirk laughed and tried to escape without stopping his game.  


“You’re such an annoying asshole,” Dave said.  


“Whatever, go whine about him on your blog,” Dirk said. Dave tossed Dirk’s hat across the room before leaving. He shut the door to his room behind him and pulled his camera out of his bag. He removed the memory card sitting in his desk chair in front of his computer.  


Setting the camera down, he popped the memory card into his computer and opened the files so he could start to work through what was usable and what wasn’t. The pictures of flowers he’d taken were too recognizable to be put into Karkat’s mailbox, but he had plenty of other pictures for that, so he set them all in a different file. He put some of the scenery photos in his Photoshop file so he would remember to edit them later. Then, Dave took the photos of Karkat and started to work through them. He chose two that Karkat had been silhouetted in for his Photoshop file, before sifting through the rest and taking note of all the subtle things about Karkat’s expressions in them.  


Karkat looked so peaceful working with the flowers. Dave hadn’t even noticed that he at no point put on gloves to dig in the dirt. He had a short flash of regret that he didn’t get any pictures of Karkat dipping the plants in the water, but it was too late for that anyway. He opened up Photoshop and started to work on the photos where Karkat was just a silhouette. It was nice getting to work with a subject he really liked again. It had been a long time since he’d taken such a good group of photos.  


Dave worked well into the night trying to make all the photos he had perfect. He decided that he’d gotten too into it when he started to dodge and burn Karkat’s hair to the point where it looked gray in certain spots. He undid the work he’d just done and saved the file before lying down in his bed. It wasn’t long before he was asleep again. It felt easy to sleep if he pretended he was in Karkat’s bed again.


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a sophomore in college who takes an immediate liking to Karkat.

Karkat was unbelievably relieved that Dave didn’t remember kissing him. It gave him more time to figure himself out before he had to address Dave’s feelings. Dave was in and out of the shop at his usual pace which helped Karkat keep himself from accidentally hiding away from him until it was no longer something he had to think about, but it didn’t stop him from wandering around in a daze for most of the two weeks that passed. He’d told Dave he needed to clear his head so many times that Dave had started calling it his catch phrase.  


Kanaya was waiting at the counter for Karkat when he got in for his afternoon shift a few weeks after he’d been in the mountains with Dave. She smiled at him and stood up from the stool so she could meet him in the middle of the shop. Karkat’s knee jerk reaction was to pause and back off, but she seemed to be in a good enough mood that he caught himself before completely running away from her. She threw herself into his arms.  


“Guess what?” she asked. Karkat wrapped his arms around her waist.  


“What?” he asked. She pressed her face into his chest shaking with what he guessed was pure joy. Kanaya let out a little noise that could only be described as a squeak. Karkat looked down at her smiling just watching her face for a moment.  


“Rose and I went on a date last night! It was totally impromptu, but it was most definitely a date,” she said. Karkat laughed and picked her up to spin her around once.  


“That’s great. I’m so happy for you. You have to tell me everything,” he said. Kanaya giggled and wrapped her arms around Karkat’s neck. Karkat knew she liked it when people were physically affectionate with her. She liked to be close to her friends, it was one of the things Karkat loved about her.  


“I’m so excited. I’m meeting her for coffee after this, but I will tell you everything once I’m home I’ll call,” Kanaya said.  


“Okay,” he said, “have fun, don’t act too excited.”  


“Oh shush. I’m perfectly calm around Rose all the time,” Kanaya said. Karkat laughed more and let go of her so he could retreat if needed.  


“About as calm as a jar full of wasps,” Karkat said. She drew her mouth into a hard line and smacked his arm.  


“Don’t start with me. I’ve seen you around Dave,” Kanaya said, “at least I’m not in denial.”  


“I am not in denial. He’s a friend,” Karkat said. He crossed his arms across his chest as Kanaya rolled her eyes at him.  


“I think you need to rethink your answer. Come back to me after you’ve kissed him or something and tell me the same thing,” Kanaya said. Karkat sputtered for a moment. His ears felt hot and he couldn’t bring himself to close his mouth. There was a moment of silence before Kanaya’s mouth slowly dropped as she brought her hands up to press her fingers against her lips. “Oh my god you kissed him didn’t you?”  


“N-no. I didn’t say that,” Karkat said. He backed towards the counter and tried to sneak around it, but she followed him.  


“Don’t lie. I’d know that face anywhere. Tell me what happened,” she said.  


“I didn’t,” Karkat said.  


“Yeah, right. Now tell me,” Kanaya said. She was leering at him as he avoided eye contact.  


“It’s a long story, I’ll tell you tonight when you call,” he said. Kanaya narrowed her eyes at him and huffed.  


“Fine, but I’m only letting you off because I have to go. Don’t forget we close early today,” she said. Karkat let go of a deep breath relieved that he didn’t have to recount the story to Kanaya. He’d have to find some way out of it for later though.  


Kanaya left in a hurry, but she trapped Karkat in his thoughts for the rest of the afternoon. He made bouquets slowly, and only finished half of what he normally would in an hour. The last time he’d been in a relationship it ended so poorly that he felt the need to pick up and leave the state he grew up in and that’s how he found himself here. He wasn’t positive that it could end that way with Dave. In fact he wasn’t really sure it could end that way with anyone besides his previous boyfriend, but the thought still lingered in his head.  


He was also pretty worried about their age difference. He knew to Dave, it wouldn’t seem like that big of a deal. That’s what it’s like to be almost nineteen. Karkat on the other hand could see a world of differences between their maturity levels and he didn’t want to hurt Dave somehow because of it. Karkat shifted and sat with his head in his hand as he stared at a rack of flowers. It was close to closing time, he still needed a way to avoid Kanaya, and he felt like he was forgetting something.  


Karkat started to close shop anyway. If he’d forgotten it, then whatever it was probably wasn’t too important. It would be light long enough that he could still get into the mountains if he wanted to and there wouldn’t be cell reception up there, so that could protect him for a bit, but it would bring on Kanaya’s wrath later. It also meant not getting to hear about the dates she and Rose had been on which felt like a greater lose to Karkat then incurring Kanaya’s wrath.  


He was kicking himself for not thinking through things with Dave more the past few weeks. He’d put some thought into it, but he kept convincing himself other things were more important. Karkat gave himself a little bit of a break though, he had taken a couple midterms in the past few weeks and had to grade midterms from the undergraduate class he was a teacher’s assistant with. It didn’t actually excuse anything, but it made him feel better.  


It was just past time to close as he locked the door to the flower shop. Karkat headed straight home and packed up his camping gear which was in the small storage unit that each apartment unit got in his building. Once he had everything in the car he stopped at the grocery store for food and a fire starting log just in case he needed it. It would be a good place to clear his head after everything. He’d left a note on his front door just in case. He was regretting that decision, even if he couldn’t do anything about it since he was already well out of town.


	8. 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a sophomore in college who takes an immediate liking to Karkat.

Dave walked down to the flower shop at his normal time for a Friday night. He’d spent a good amount of time choosing the right clothes and printing the right photo. He’d asked Karkat to go out to dinner after his shift was over, so that he could ask him out officially in the most romantic way he could possibly muster without feeling like a total idiot. But Karkat’s hesitancy was still on the back of his mind as he walked up the hill that would lead him to the flower shop. Dave understood why Karkat might be worried, but he wasn’t about to let that keep them from trying.  


When he got to the door he stopped abruptly. He hadn’t noticed it, but the display racks weren’t out and the front door was locked. It was about thirty minutes before they were supposed to close, so there was no way he’d gotten there too late. Dave scrambled around near the front window until he spied a sheet of paper that said the shop would close early that Friday and that it wouldn’t be open Friday. What it didn’t explain was why Karkat hadn’t waited for him. Even if the shop closed before they had plans usually Karkat would be out front waiting for Dave to get there after locking up the shop.  


Though in this situation, the shop had closed over an hour ago. Dave wondered if Karkat just got sick of waiting for him. His stomach dropped. Karkat could think that Dave stood him up and the only other option was that Karkat had forgotten about him. Karkat could have not told Dave this was going to happen on purpose. Dave stood contemplating all of the reasons or thoughts Karkat might have now that this had happened. He couldn’t ask Karkat out now.  


Dave pulled out his phone to see if he’d missed a text from Karkat. When he realized Karkat had never sent him anything his whole person slouched a bit. He stood in front of the door desperately hoping that Karkat would come out of the back. Karkat had been slightly out of I that week, but Dave couldn’t bring himself to start thinking about what that could mean.  


“Excuse me,” a woman said. Dave jumped at the sound of the voice and backed away from the door slightly. The woman was tall with long black hair and Dave couldn’t quite place it, but she looked slightly familiar, “Can I help you?”  


“I, um, what?” Dave asked. Her stare was almost wolfish as Dave took another half step backwards.  


“You’re standing in front of my shop looking all helpless. So can I help you?” she asked. She seemed to get a little softer when she realized she’d scared Dave. It didn’t really help him though. Now he was so embarrassed he could hardly talk.  


“I, I was just looking for someone,” Dave said. She tilted her head slightly and smiled at Dave. He was just noticing all of the extravagant tattoos the woman had.  


“Are you looking for Karkat perhaps?” she asked. Dave nodded to avoid talking, “Kanaya’s told me about you. Your name is Dave right?”  


“Yeah, nice to meet you,” Dave said. He’d gathered himself enough to be formal with her, which she seemed to appreciate.  


“I’m Porrim, Kanaya’s mother,” she said. They shook hands and everything suddenly made sense.  


“Oh, so you own the shop then?” Dave asked.  


“Yes. Sorry if we confused you, we always close for the weekend around my birthday. It’s just become a tradition,” she said, “but anyway, Karkat seemed really out of it this entire week according to Kanaya. So I don’t really know where he is right not, but it’s probably not at home.”  


“Thanks, but I figured as much already,” Dave said. He sighed and looked down at his feet a bit.  


“Don’t worry. He does things like this from time to time. You could probably find him if you tried,” she said.  


“I wouldn’t really even know where to start looking,” he said. He looked back up at Porrim.  


“Don’t act so useless. You spend more time with him than any of the rest of us.” She lowered her voice and muttered, “despite us treating him like a family member.”  


“Uh.” Dave blinked at her.  


“He probably kept saying exactly what he was going to disappear to do, so don’t just stand here and go find him,” Porrim said.  


“Okay,” Dave said. He said goodbye as she opened the door to the shop and quickly disappeared inside. He couldn’t put together exactly what she meant, but he started walking back towards home in hopes it would come to him.  


When he was outside his building he stopped staring at the door. The sun was just about to set as he looked at the mailbox closely examining the metal doors with each tenant’s name. The only thing he could think of was Karkat not wanting Dave to be around anymore. Porrim’s words weren’t entirely helpful, but he kept trying to think of things he and Karkat had talked about a lot recently. Nothing important was coming to mind.  


Dave snapped out of it when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket finding a text from his friend who lived in Washington. He read it quickly and didn’t pay it any mind until he went to put his phone back in his pocket. He opened the phone again begging for it to load PesterChum faster.  


EB: Sorry what were we talking about? I took a shower to clear my head and now I don’t remember.  


He stared at the message blinking before he completely realized what about it struck him as important. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and ran up to his apartment to steal his brother’s keys. He left a note, so Dirk would know where he was going, and left. The sun was really low by the time he was driving out of town, but he managed to think enough to grab a flashlight before he got in the car. He just hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's a bit on the short side. It's worth it I promise.


	9. 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Description: Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a sophomore in college who takes an immediate liking to Karkat.

Karkat lays himself out on the sleeping bags he’d spread out on the ground of the tent. He sighed and rolled onto his back. He hadn’t eaten yet, but he didn’t particularly feel like moving after dragging all of the camping stuff up the trail and then trying to get the tent built which was kind of a bitch. He’d forgotten how much he’d broken some of the parts the last time he used it. It was kind of his fault though. Last time he’d gone camping with friends they’d gotten kind of drunk and someone broke it. He wasn’t really sure who did it though. He sat up. He needed to start a fire and he needed to make himself food.  


“Karkat?” Karkat stared at the door. He hoped he wasn’t hearing things, but it sounded like Dave.  


“Dave?” Karkat asked. He leaned forward and unzipped the plastic door on the tent only to find a flashlight in his face.  


“You’re actually here,” Dave said.  


“Yes, now turn that off,” Karkat said.  


“Oh, sorry,” Dave said. He flipped off the flashlight and blinked at Karkat.  


“Holy hell what happened to your arms?” Karkat asked. Dave glanced at his hands and arms and sighed slightly.  


“I fell on the way up here. It was dark by the time I got on the trail,” he said. Karkat frowned unzipping the mesh door that was meant to keep out bugs.  


“Get in here,” he said. He pulled Dave into the tent hastily, “you shouldn’t be so careless. You could have really gotten hurt.”  


“S-sorry,” Dave said. He was half in Karkat’s lap as Karkat zipped the mesh door to the tent back up.  


“Did you really walk up here with your sunglasses on? Are you nuts?” Karkat asked. Dave sighed in relief when Karkat pulled away from him to get a first aid kit from his bag.  
“I don’t ever take these off,” Dave said. Karkat sighed turning on the little LED lamp that was hung at the top of the tent.  


“Just give me your arms,” he said. Dave held out his arms to him so Karkat could start cleaning the cuts. They were mostly small scrapes, but there were a lot of them. He spent a good amount of time cleaning them out as Dave winced.  


“Thanks.” Dave mumbled softly as Karkat put away the first aid kit.  


“It’s fine, but you really should be more careful,” Karkat said.  


“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dave shifted to cross his legs and Karkat sat back on his hands a bit.  


“What are you even doing here?” Karkat asked. Dave realized he was probably intruding on some kind of private time Karkat was having. He felt guilty, but he already on the trail when he realized it, so there was no point in turning back.  


“I was worried since I was supposed to meet you after you were done at work and the shop was closed,” Dave said. He stared at his feet. Karkat watched him for a moment. He didn’t remember telling Dave that he’d meet with him, but he had forgotten quite a few things that week.  


“Dave, I’m sorry,” Karkat said, “I didn’t mean to freak you out. It slipped my mind.”  


“It’s okay. I met Kanaya’s mother though. She was the one that said I should go looking for you,” Dave said. Karkat screwed his face up as he shook his head.  


“Wait, what? Porrim told you to look for me?” he asked.  


“Yeah, she said you probably wouldn’t be at home, but I should try to find you,” Dave said. Karkat furrowed his brow. His eyes were locked on the pillow near the top of the sleeping bags. He and Dave weren’t very far apart because the tent was small. He’d have to keep Dave up here with him that night at the least.  


“That’s really unusual for her,” Karkat said.  


“Really? She seemed pretty sure she was giving me the right advice. I could leave if you’d like,” Dave said.  


“No, no. I don’t think you should keep walking around in the dark in your sunglasses, but how did you find me? Did you find the note on my door?” Karkat asked.  


“No.” Dave shook his head. “You kept saying you had to clear your head this week. You told me that this was a good place to clear your head before, so I put two and two together.”  


“Oh,” Karkat said. He rubbed the back of his head. It felt nice to know that Dave really listened to what he said. Karkat could hear his heart beat in his ears. His mouth was dry and the feeling felt awkward, but he knew what it was at least. He cared about Dave a lot.  


“Are you okay?” Dave asked.  


“Yeah, sorry,” Karkat said.  


“Okay.” Dave paused and looked at Karkat sheepishly, “so you weren’t avoiding me?”  


Karkat looked up at Dave blinking. He swallowed hard trying to keep down the shaking in his chest, but he couldn’t help himself from laughing out loud. He bent his head down, so he wouldn’t be laughing in Dave’s face and shook his head. He didn’t want Dave to get the wrong impression.  


“No. I wasn’t avoiding you,” Karkat said, “I was avoiding Kanaya.”  


Dave’s face got kind of puppyish. Karkat had seen it before, yet it seemed a lot more meaningful in this moment as he laughed softly with Karkat. It felt very natural for Karkat, the kind of natural that’s refreshing.  


“Why were you avoiding Kanaya?” Dave asked. Karkat abruptly stopped laughing. He hadn’t quite thought that far into this story.  


“It doesn’t really matter. Hey I have something we should talk about,” Karkat said. Dave’s throat got rough as Karkat moved a little closer to him. He felt like he was blushing and he worried about Karkat seeing it. He didn’t even give a second thought to the fact that his shades probably hid it well.  


Karkat couldn’t look Dave in the face. Instead he looked at everything around his head which mostly consisted of tent all. He could hear his heart pound in his ears as he reached out and softly took Dave’s hand.


	10. 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> DaveKat Fluff

Dave pressed Karkat back into the sleeping bags with his arms tight around Karkat’s neck. He pressed his face into Karkat’s shoulder feeling the soft skin brush against his nose. Dave wanted nothing more than to stay like that for as long as he could, but Karkat grabbed his shoulders and lifted Dave just enough to see his face.  


“What are you doing?” Karkat asked. In the moment, Dave assumed he’d made himself clear, but thinking back on it as he was now, he never actually said anything to Karkat. Dave blushed and shifted his weight off of Karkat a bit.  


“I think I like you too,” he said. Karkat blinked at him. Dave was doing that happy puppy thing again, and Karkat was just trying to pull himself together. He could honestly say he never expected Dave to just throw himself into Karkat’s lap.  


“Really?” Karkat asked. Karkat really only asked so that he seemed surprised. He knew that Dave probably still didn’t remember confessing to him almost two weeks ago. Dave nodded and they both smiled at each other. Karkat still had the urge to take Dave’s shades off, but instead he leaned up just enough to plant a small kiss on Dave’s lips. Dave’s face got redder in the light of the little lantern hanging above them. They grinned at each other until they both got too hungry to avoid eating. Karkat pulled Dave out of the tent and gave him a lighter to start a fire.  


Karkat walked the short way where he’d hung a cooler in a tree. He lowered the cooler and took out everything he needed to make dinner before he started back to the campsite. When he got back, Dave had the fire going strong and he was just about to put the cooking rack over the flames. Karkat grabbed the skillet from next to the tent and set it on top of the rack.  


“What are you making?” Dave asked. Karkat sat on the log next to the lawn chair Dave was sitting in.  


“Scrambled eggs. It’s not extravagant, but it’s almost nine and I’m lazy,” Karkat said. Dave laughed as Karkat started to crack eggs on the edge of the skillet. Karkat cooked quickly over the large fire and dished out the eggs into cups because Dave couldn’t find the plates fast enough. So they sat watching the fire and eating eggs out of cups. When they were done Karkat put the dishes in a plastic tub and got out the supplies for making s’mores.  


“You brought stuff to make s’mores?” Dave asked. He was opening a bag of graham crackers as Karkat stuck marshmallows on skewers.  


“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I bring s’mores while camping?” Karkat asked. He offered Dave one of the skewers.  


“Because that means you’d be sitting all alone making s’mores. It’s kind of a depressing picture,” Dave said. Karkat froze solid holding his skewer just close enough to the flames for the marshmallow to catch fire.  


“I really never thought about it,” Karkat mumbled. Dave looked at him and realized he might have said something off.  


“I was just kidding it’s really not that depressing. I’m sorry,” Dave said. He waved his hands around a bit in an attempt to brush off what he’d said. Karkat Laughed and dropped the skewer and marshmallow into the fire before getting a new one.  


“No you’re right. It’s depressing. But what’s worse is I tend to make s’mores alone in my apartment when I’m sad,” Karkat said. Dave watched him blinking.  


“I think that’s kind of nice though. Having a routine to deal with stuff like that,” Dave said. Karkat glanced at him and smiled as he skewered another marshmallow.  


“I guess maybe,” Karkat said.  


“Hey come here,” Dave said. Dave gestured for him to come closer his skewer still in hand. Karkat stood and took an awkward step to stand next to the chair Dave sat in. Dave stood placing his hands on Karkat’s shoulders so he could force Karkat to sit in the chair.  


“It’s okay I really didn’t mind being on the log,” Karkat said. He stopped himself when Dave chuckled and sat in his lap.  


“It’s okay. This had nothing to do with where you were sitting other than that I couldn’t touch you over there,” Dave said. He held out his skewer and started to cook the marshmallow on the end. Karkat wrapped an arm around Dave’s waist. He was excited to get to be this close to Dave. He didn’t realize how much he’d been craving that kind of attention from him.  


Dave felt very natural where he was. Even as Karkat leaned forward to roast his own marshmallow and pressed into Dave more, Dave didn’t feel uncomfortable. Karkat found he hold onto Dave easily. He didn’t have to worry about putting his hands in the right place. Where ever he put his hands Dave just seemed comfortable with and Karkat enjoyed that trust that Dave put in him.  


“Oh by the way,” Dave said. He’d just pulled the skewer out of his first s’more, but he reached for something in his back pocket, “this is for you.”  


Karkat took the small photo from him and blinked at it. On the back, Dave had scrawled a few words asking Karkat to go out with him. On the front, there was a photo of a Cowboy’s Delight.  


“Have you been putting all those photos in my mailbox?” he asked. Dave smiled at him as he took a bite of his s’more.  


“Yeah, though I never expected you to actually keep them,” Dave said. Karkat rubbed his forehead a bit.  


“I thought this was someone else. I can’t believe I never caught onto it,” Karkat said. He laughed a little stiffly as Dave swallowed so he could talk again.  


“Really? Who’d you think it was?” Dave asked.  


“This little high school girl. She’s the younger sister of one of my classmates who grew up around here. She’s had a crush on me ever since we met,” Karkat said. Dave laughed and watched Karkat blow out his marshmallow when it caught fire again.  


“I’m sorry I made you think she was doing it, but if I’d signed them you would have known,” Dave said. He found the whole thing pretty humorous. It meant a lot to him that Karkat would go out of his way not to hurt a high school girl’s feelings.  


“It’s okay. I’m kind of relieved it wasn’t her.” Karkat paused, “and knowing this was you is kind of cute.”  


“I’m glad you liked it. Too bad I didn’t get to give you the last one to actually ask you out,” Dave said. Karkat smiled and Dave tried to take a permanent mental picture of Karkat in that moment. The light of the fire seemed to make him glow brighter than he normally did. At least to Dave it did. Karkat caught Dave staring, but he didn’t say anything. He stared up at Dave’s shades wide eyed and curious looking.  


Dave was too busy enjoying Karkat’s face to notice Karkat reach up and grab his sunglasses. He felt his heart throb as Karkat carefully lifted them and pushed his hair out of his face. Karkat’s eyes got wider when he could finally see Dave’s face unobscured. He spent as much time as he could just taking in his face, the light freckles that were almost entirely covered by the shades, the shape of his eyes, and the marks on the sides of his nose from the glasses. Meanwhile, Dave panicked and Karkat moved his hand to cup his face so he couldn’t get the shades back on.  


“Wow you have really pretty eyes,” Karkat said. Karkat stared at the bright red and deep cherry colors. Dave froze with his hands on his shades. He wanted to put his shades back on, but Karkat’s hands were in the way, so he sat their trembling slightly as Karkat stared into his eyes. He knew Karkat had said something, but wasn’t really able to comprehend anything coming out of Karkat’s mouth.  


“W-what?” Dave asked. He finally managed to focus his vision on Karkat’s face. Karkat regretted pulling Dave’s sunglasses off, but he couldn’t keep from being happy about seeing Dave’s face for the first time.  


“I said you have pretty eyes,” Karkat said. Dave blinked at him.  


“I, um, thank you,” Dave said. Karkat watched as Dave’s face got red. He couldn’t keep himself from enjoying the bashful way Dave looked down at his lap as he put together the s’more he’d been making. It seemed to be his defense against making eye contact.  


“Why do you wear the sunglasses all the time anyway?” Karkat asked. He slipped the shades off Dave’s head carefully placing them in the pocket on Dave’s shirt and got him to lower his arms again. Dave looked at the fire and avoided making eye contact with Karkat.  


“I, um,” Dave said. He shifted in Karkat’s lap, “people in Texas don’t really take kindly to people with demon eyes. Also my eyes are pretty sensitive to light, so it kind of kills two birds with one stone.”  


“They actually told you that you have demon eyes?” Karkat asked. Dave didn’t take his eyes off the s’more in his hands. Karkat had dropped his whole skewer in the fire again.  


“They’re a little radical down there sometimes. I spent a good amount of time trying to keep them from knowing I was gay too,” Dave said, “I even dated girls because it got people off my back.”  


“I understand why you’d want to keep your sexuality a secret down there,” Karkat said. He slipped Dave’s shades on grinning at him, “but I honestly don’t see you as someone who’d care about other people calling him a demon.”  


“I didn’t. It was just really annoying to have girls come up to me from behind to try and hit on me and have them start screaming their heads off when I turned around,” Dave said. They both laughed and Dave bent down to slip his shades up onto Karkat’s head as Dave kissed him. The fire started to get low as they both toasted a few more marshmallows for s’mores. Dave insisted on trying to feed at least one to Karkat only to cover them in graham cracker crumbs after Karkat had only taken one bite.  


When the fire was only smoldering embers, they crawled back into the tent. Karkat and Dave stripped their shoes off and set them just outside the door before they both sat back on the sleeping bags unsure of what to do next. Dave realized he had no extra clothes with him, so he had nothing to wear to sleep but his boxers and it was just hitting him now they’d have to share the sleeping bags otherwise neither of them would be warm enough. While Dave slowly grew embarrassed at the idea of sharing a bed with Karkat half-naked, Karkat rifled through his bag for pajama bottoms hoping he’d have a second pair for Dave.  


Dave sat staring at the few plants in the corner of the tent as Karkat came up empty. He recognized one from one of the photos he’d taken to give to Karkat. Dave touched the pot softly before picking it up to examine the flower in the light of the lamp still hanging at the peak of the tent.  


“Do you recognize that flower?” Karkat asked. Dave jumped at the sound of Karkat’s voice. He tried to hide that he did, but Karkat had a look on his face when Dave turned around that said Karkat had clearly seen it happen. He gave up and tried to focus his attention on the question instead.  


“No, well, kind of. I think it’s a flower I took a picture of,” Dave said, “one of the ones I gave you.”  


“You’re right.” Karkat smiles and Dave can tell he’s about to go on one of his nerdy flower rants. Dave didn’t really mind, but he kind of wanted to sleep. Not that he was really sure where he was sleeping yet. “It’s actually the one in the picture you just gave me. It’s a pretty rare wildflower.”  


“Oh really?” Dave asked. He couldn’t help himself, Karkat was too nice to shut down even if Dave had no particular interest in that moment to start hearing about genus of the flower and what kinds areas it grew in.  


“Mmhmm, it’s actually kind of coincidental that I found one earlier today and then you gave me that picture,” Karkat said. Dave looked back at Karkat. He was expecting scientific flower names, not that.  


“Why’s that?” Dave asked. He watched as Karkat got this great bashful smile on his face and looked down at the plastic floor of the tent. Dave had never wish he’d had a camera in his hands more in his entire life, but he felt that way a lot about Karkat.  


“It sounds stupid, but they kind of remind me of you. That’s why I picked that one up,” Karkat said. Dave didn’t hesitate to start laughing, he couldn’t help himself as he began to double over and his head neared being in Karkat’s lap. Karkat frowned at him a little and nudged his shoulder, “don’t laugh.”  


“I’m sorry,” Dave said. He got closer to composing himself, but his body torso still shook with laughter, “it was just so adorable. You compare everyone to flower’s don’t you?”  


“No…” Karkat said. He let his voice get softer as he spoke. Dave had him pegged better than he thought, he’d cautiously decided what information about himself he’d tell Dave, but that didn’t protect him from Dave totally figuring him out anyway. Either way, Karkat blushed his face getting pinkish. Lucky for him, it was just barely too dark for it to be noticeable. Dave didn’t really have to look at him to know he was kind of flustered though, so he quickly hugged Karkat again crawling into his lap as he did.  


“I know that was a lie,” Dave said. He shifted his weight to force Karkat back until he was lying down on the sleeping bags with Dave on top of him. Now Karkat blushed dark enough to see it in the dim light of the tent and Dave was a little more than satisfied with himself over it. Karkat smiled anyway, at the least his plan to make things less awkward worked out.  


“Shush,” Karkat said. He wrapped his arms around Dave, who was busy nuzzling into Karkat’s neck, and hugged him tightly. Karkat shifted his head a bit, being careful not to rest his head too much on Dave’s hand which rested next to his head. It was still wrapped in bandages, and he took a moment to make sure that he wasn’t bleeding through the bandage at all. “How do your hands feel? Do the cuts hurt at all?”  


“Not really.” He shook his head a bit and sat back enough to look at Karkat’s face, “they still sting a bit from that stuff you put on them though.”  


“That’s a good thing,” Karkat said.  


“Maybe for you,” Dave said. He grumbled softly. Karkat chuckled sitting up on his elbows a bit.  


“We should try to get some rest.” Karkat ran his fingers through Dave’s hair surprised at how soft it was. He thought Dave dyed his hair that bright blonde color, maybe he didn’t.  


“Yeah we should,” Dave said. He didn’t move off Karkat. Instead he shuffled forward just enough to kiss Karkat. Karkat kissed Dave back taking in the pressure of having Dave on top of him. Everything Dave touched felt good, so when Dave licked his lip softly, Karkat opened his mouth and making out quickly moved back to the top of Karkat’s priority list. Dave currently tasted like burnt marshmallows, which was quickly becoming the best thing Karkat had ever tasted.  


Dave broke the kiss to breathe and they both watched each other as the panted softly. Dave stroked Karkat’s hair a little before sitting back on his knees and pulled at Karkat’s t-shirt. He got it up enough for Karkat to lift his shoulders off the ground so he could quickly remove it.  


“Hey, Dave, I don’t know if I’m really comfortable having,” Karkat said. Dave didn’t let him finish his sentence and kissed him softly again moving to wrap his arms around Karkat’s chest.  


“Shush.” Dave pulled away from the kiss and nestled into Karkat’s chest. “This is all I want.”  


Karkat blinked at Dave for a moment. He wanted to question it further, but he could see Dave was starting to doze off a bit and Karkat would never be able to sleep in that position. Karkat rolled them over so they were both on their sides mumbled to Dave about taking his pants off. Dave seemed to understand that Karkat meant for him to take his pants off to sleep and not in a sexual way so he kept his boxers on. After a lot of tired rolling, Karkat also managed to get Dave under the sleeping bag he planned to use for a blanket before Karkat pulled off his own pants. When he crawled into the sleeping bag with Dave, Dave immediately snaked his arm around Karkat’s chest again so he could nuzzle his way into Karkat’s shoulder.  


“Good night.” Karkat flicked the switch on the lantern still hanging from the top of the tent. Karkat pressed his nose into Dave’s hair.  


“Night.”


	11. 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat’s the clerk and hopeful future owner of a little flower shop in Boulder, Colorado when he meets Dave, a Sophomore in college who takes an immediately liking to Karkat.

Karkat woke up to searing pain in his eyes and immediately regretted whatever decision he’d made that caused it. Dave was next to him still sleeping soundly, so Karkat didn’t bother him. Instead he crawled to his backpack and found a new set of one day contacts and his glasses before nearly tearing the whole thing apart to find the eye drops he knew he’d brought. He’d forgotten that he’d worn them to work the day before, normally if he was going to go camping he’d take them out as soon as he got to the campsite so he wouldn’t forget that night and put new ones on in the morning. It wasn’t like he needed to see perfectly clearly to hang out in the woods.  


He pulled on pants and scrambled his way out of the tent and poured a quarter of a bottle of eye drops in each of his eyes before carefully peeling the lens away from his eyeball. He tossed the old lenses into the trash bag he had near the tent, it didn’t help that he wore one day contacts. They were definitely not meant to be slept in at all. Karkat stood near the fire which still glowed softly and put a few more eye drops in his eyes before sliding on his glasses.  


Dave woke up and turned over. He stayed still for a long while wondering where Karkat was until his brain started to actually function and he realized Karkat was probably already awake. He sat up and found his shades next to the pillow slipping them on as he found his pants. Once he’d pulled on his pants as well, he crawled out of the tent to find Karkat sitting in front of a small fire with a pan full of what looked to Dave like cut up breakfast sausages.  


“Mornin’” Dave said. He paused when he noticed the thick dark frames on Karkat’s face. He quickly racked his memory for any moment he could possibly think of when Karkat had glasses on, but came up short.  


“Morning,” Karkat said. He glanced at Dave who was still trying to comprehend how he’d missed an important piece of information like that about Karkat. Though when he looked at Karkat more closely and got passed the initial shock, he had to admit the large wide frames looked pretty good on him, though Karkat’s eyes looked pretty red.  


“What’s with the glasses?” Dave asked. Karkat cracked a few eggs into the pan with the sausage and starts to scramble them. Dave sat in the folding chair next to the log Karkat was sitting on and pulled at the bandages on his hands. He started to slowly pull them off unravelling them until he could see splotches of blood on them.  


“I fell asleep with my contacts in last night,” Karkat said, “it’d hurt too much to put new ones on and I need to see to get down the mountain when we leave.” Dave had forgotten that contacts existed. He probably didn’t pay much attention because he didn’t wear them himself.  


“Okay,” Dave said. Karkat had just finished cooking when Dave got the second bandage entirely off his hand.  


“How do your hands feel?” Karkat asked. Dave examined the little scabbed cuts that littered his palms and fingers. They didn’t really hurt so much as ache, none of them were bleeding, and he could move his hands pretty easily.  


“Pretty good all things considered,” Dave said. He held them up for Karkat to see, “they aren’t bleedin’ and they’re not really painful anymore.”  


“That’s good,” Karkat said. He reached up so he could pull Dave’s hand a bit closer to his face so he could check for any unusual redness. It was just in case something managed to get in and infect any of the cuts, which was a pretty slim chance, but Karkat wanted to be sure.  


“Do I need any more of that stingy stuff?” Dave asked. Dave’s accent was thick and blanketed over his words elongating vowels and cutting out consonants where ever it felt like.  


“No, I think you’re fine,” Karat said. He let go of Dave’s hand and turned back to the eggs on the fire, “does your accent always get more noticeable in the mornings?”  


“Nah, when I’m tired it’s harder to cut it out,” Dave said. Karkat smiled as he dished the eggs out onto plates. Dave pulled the photo of the Cowboy’s Delight out of the cup holder of the folding chair. He held it up in the sunlight examining the little imperfections that still bothered him. “You know, I think you owe me for ruining my asking you out. I spent so much time on it, it’s the least you can do.”  


“Actually, to be fair, you ruined it two weeks ago that night you slept at my apartment,” Karkat said. Dave gave Karkat a blank look while Karkat held out a plate for him. He didn’t take it, in awe of what had just come out of Karkat’s mouth.  


“I did what?” Dave’s mouth turned into a hard line and Karkat had to try incredibly hard not to laugh at his reaction.  


“You told me you liked me and you kissed me,” Karkat said. Dave’s face was beet red before Karkat had even finished the sentence. Karkat found it adorable, but he knew Dave wasn’t going to be laughing any time soon over it, so Karkat kept his mouth shut. Dave on the other hand, was searching through his memory for anything that would indicate an action like that. He remembered smoking, and he remembered Sollux leaving, but he didn’t really remember anything after that. Although, he did remember having really intense thoughts about him and Karkat and what they could be doing if they were alone. He didn’t remember actually doing it, but he could see why he would have.  


“What, what did you do?” Dave asked.  


“I put you in my bed and told you to go to sleep,” Karkat said.  


“So, I just went to sleep after that? I didn’t say anything else?” Dave looked at Karkat over his shades so Karkat could see just a bit of his eyes.  


“Yep,” Karkat said. He set the plate of scrambled eggs in Dave’s lap and added a fork to the plate. Dave couldn’t comprehend everything still, so Karkat thought he’d just leave him before now. He started eating.  


“So then, why didn’t you say anything until now?” Dave asked. Karkat sighed and looked at Dave closely. He wished he didn’t have to talk to Dave through his shades all the time.  


“Well, I was really confused about my feelings still, so I just kept quiet until I figure it out.” Karkat poked at the eggs on his plate trying not to look directly at Dave again. “Actually, it wasn’t until I was up here that I really realized how strong my feelings were and then you showed up out of nowhere like you would in some cheesy romance novel.”  


“Oh, so you figured yourself out first that’s cool,” Dave said. He calmed down a bit because Karkat was treating it like it wasn’t a big deal, which helped Dave convince himself it really wasn’t. His face stayed red though and when Karkat smiled at him he felt like his face got darker. He felt like most people would have taken advantage of Dave considering how frisky he remembers wanting to be with Karkat just before his memory faded out. Dave definitely wouldn’t have been comfortable if something had happened, he would have been so embarrassed and he would have felt too used. He wasn’t really the type to be okay with having sex outside a predetermined relationship.  


“Yeah, that was all. I didn’t want to lie to you about it anymore though,” Karkat said. Dave started eating. Dave started to edit his image of Karkat in his mind, cutting out the parts where he thought Karkat might lie to protect himself. He’d never seemed so chivalric to Dave before, but now all the sudden he was seeing Karkat’s personal code of conduct and it was a good development in Dave’s head. It made Dave want to trust him more, not that Dave wouldn’t throw himself at Karkat in that moment if Karkat asked, but he wasn’t about to start throwing his personal thoughts and feelings around until he was a little more sure about how Karkat would treat him.  


“Thanks,” Dave said. Karkat nodded as he finished eating. Dave kicked himself in gear and started eating finally. Once Dave had eaten, they spent the day hiking up to the top of the ridge which didn’t exactly sit well with Dave.  


“I don’t have work until late tomorrow; we can stay the night again if you want.” Karkat cleaned his plate off in a bush and set amongst some other dirty dishes that they’d set aside the night before.  


“What are we going to do today then?” Dave sat back in his chair and craned his neck to look at Karkat.  


“Well, I was planning on going all the way up to the top of the mountain. I was hoping there’d be this wildflower up there that I’ve been looking for,” Karkat said. He pointed at the grassy peak that loomed over them just behind the trees.  


“Oh.” Dave looked up above the trees. “We could, uh, we could do that.”  


“Why do you sound so apprehensive? Too much walking for you,” Karkat said. He picked up a couple of sticks tossing them into the fire as Dave finished his food.  


“No, no, let’s go it’ll be a cool view. Too bad I don’t have my camera,” Dave said. Dave stood up and added his dish to the pile before dusting his hands off.  


“Okay,” Karkat said. He grabbed a backpack from near the entrance to the tent slipping it onto his back. “Let’s head out.”  


“Yeah,” Dave said. He stood on wobbly legs and took Karkat’s hand when he offered it to him. Dave figured he could handle the height, maybe.  


Despite Dave’s insistence to walk the slowest and furthest he possibly could from the edge of the trail which was already several feet away from the small cliff, Karkat managed to get them up to the top in a little under an hour. Once they were at the top, Karkat nestled down in a small patch of wildflowers and started to dig one up that he couldn’t quite identify. He needed to measure the petal length, so he decided taking it home with him was the best option. While Karkat worked with the flowers, Dave took a few pictures and tried to keep his mind off the steep wall of rocks that led down to their little campsite. It didn’t really work.  


Karkat could only keep Dave up so high long enough to get one flower out of the ground. He was pretty content with it even if Dave was being a little more skittish than necessary. They were both back to their newly formed relationship bliss by the time they were back by the camp site. Dave was excited to spend more of the day with Karkat and Karkat was happy that Dave let him ramble about flowers the whole way down the mountain. Talking about hiking they should do and where they should go on dates made everything seem more official. It was nice for them both. Nice and comfortable.


End file.
